chaser

Etymology 1

From Middle English chaser, chacer, chasour, borrowed from Old French chaceür, chaceor, from chacier (“to chase, hunt”); later senses from or influenced by chase (“pursue”) + -er. Doublet of chasseur.

noun

1. A person or thing (ship, plane, car, etc.) that chases.
   One student is the chaser and the other is the chasee. Give the chasee three seconds to get away and then allow the chaser to attempt to tag the chasee. 2007, David Oatman, Old Favorites, New Fun, page 32
2. (archaic) A hunter.
3. A horse: (originally) a horse used for hunting; (now) a horse trained for steeplechasing, a steeplechaser.
   "[I]t looked like The Fellow was the best steeplechaser in many years. He'd earned the best speed rating I'd ever given a chaser." 2002, Nick Mordin, Betting for a Living, page 351
   "Wild Risk...had his greatest successes as a steeplechaser rather than a flat racer... It is rare indeed that a 'chaser - even one as good as wild risk - makes a good flat sire." 2003, Avalyn Hunter, American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002, page 458
   Oh, that final furlong! It can be both agony and ecstasy. Anyone who doubts that should have seen the television close-up of Jim Lewis as his great chaser Best Mate came up the final hill at Cheltenham in 2004 to clich a hat-trick of Gold Cups. ... Best mate is the best steeplechaser we have seen for years and all being well will be at the Cheltenham Festival again in 2005 to try and make it four Gold Cups. 2004, Sports Ticket: Live the Action! by Sportsfile, page 179
4. A drink consumed after another of a different kind.
   Coordinate term: back
   beer chaser
   straight, no chaser
   Cowboys in high-heeled boots teeter along its sidewalks, or push the swinging doors aside for a shot or two—straight, no chaser. 1947, John Clarkson Jay, Skiing the Americas, page 115
   All this stuff is blocking us / I'm neat with no chaser / I'm all spirit, but I'm sinking 2019, “People's Faces”, in The Book of Traps and Lessons, performed by Kae Tempest
5. (logging, obsolete) Someone who follows logs out of the forest in order to signal a yarder engineer to stop them if they become fouled (also called a frogger).
   "...on one end known as a Bardon choker hook, to facilitate making a loop. It stays tight and makes it unnecessary for the "chaser" or "choker setter" to follow the "turn" to the landing as might have to be done if tongs are used" 1900, Pamphlets on Logging Equipment (author unknown), page 22
   A chaser follows the logs to the landing, often riding in a rigging sled hollowed out of a log, which is attached to the rear log. The chaser can signal to the road engineer at any point... 1913, Ralph Clement Bryant, Logging: The Principles and General Methods of Operation in the United States, page 219
   and the chaser is the fellow whose job it is to follow along after these logs to... 1918, United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation: Hearing Before the Committee on Commerce
6. (logging) One who unhooks chokers from the logs at the landing.
   The rigging slinger hooks the chokers to the main line, the chaser unhooks them at the spar tree. 1956, Stewart Hall Holbrook, Holy Old Mackinaw: A Natural History of the American Lumber-Jack, page 184
   A chaser was the man who unhooked the logs that were yarded in to the spar tree. 1975, Fred Moira Farrow, Nobody Here But Us: Pioneers of the North, page 170
   "When the turn arrives at the landing, the chaser directs the engineer where to drop the turn by hand signals. The chaser then unhooks the chokers, gets in the clear, and singlas to reel in the haulback line". 1985, John Kenneth Pearce, George Stenzel, Logging and Pulpwood Production, pages 242–243
7. (slang, historical) A piece of music, etc. played after a performance while the audience leaves.
   After the final curtain the orchestra played a "chaser" which was music played while the audience members not remaining for the after-show concert left the theatre. 1969, Robert Dean Klassen, The Tent-repertoire Theatre: A Rural American Institution, page 95
   Films had become a regular feature of the typical vaudeville program, ending most programs and occasionally serving as a “chaser” that encouraged audiences to leave the continuous programs rather than retain their seats to watch them a second time. 2009, Andre Gaudreault, American Cinema 1890-1909: Themes and Variations, page 113
8. One of a series of adjacent light bulbs that cycle on and off to give the illusion of movement.
9. A long piece of flexible wire used to draw an electrical cable through a wall cavity.
10. Synonym of prison chaser (“person who guards military prisoners”)
11. (slang) A person who seeks out sexual partners with a particular quality:
    1. (slang) A tranny chaser.
       These types despise TGentlemen and insist that any man who is interested in TGirls is automatically a troll, a chaser, or just a gay man in denial. 2016, Michael David Freel, Trans-Oriented: A Guide to Love and Relationships
    2. (slang) A chubby chaser.
    3. (slang) A person who seeks partners with HIV in order to become infected.
       At any given time, there are often dozens of people actively posting online ads as “chasers” or “gifters” in San Francisco and elsewhere around the nation .. Though chasers and gifters are active around the world, many see San Francisco as a kind of mecca .. apps like Grindr and Recon, as well as the website Breeding.Zone, where gifters and chasers share advice and stories about their sexual experiences, make it relatively straightforward to meet people who want to be infected with the virus that causes AIDS — or to infect their partners. 2016, An Undercover Look Inside the World of HIV Bug Chasers and Gift Givers
12. (fiction, Harry Potter) In the sport of Quidditch or Muggle quidditch, a player responsible for passing the quaffle and scoring goals with it.
13. Any dragonfly of family Libellulidae.

Etymology 2

From chase (“groove; decorate metal”) + -er.

noun

1. Someone who chases (decorates) metal; a person who decorates metal by engraving or embossing.
   "Mr B., heraldic chaser, says there are several processes in making heraldy plates, sketching, engraving, embossing, chasing and burnishing." "H. & C., manufacturers of cloth and gilt buttons, say it requires some weeks to learn to chase the gilt buttons, which are done with small metal tools and a hammer. Chasers are paid by the piece, working ten hours a day, and some can earn $1 a day." 1863, Virginia Penny, The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work, page 100
   Flat chasing in sunken or low relief is a technique by which the ornament is formed by beating down the ground from the front. This is done in essentially the same manner as repoussé work, where the ornament appears in high relief, but the design is punched from the face of the silver plate. ... Sometimes, instead of applying a freehand design, the chaser covers the greased surface with a paper pattern in which the design is pricked with pins. 1971, George Bernard Hughes, Living Crafts, page 36
   Chasing in general can be distinguished from engraving, in that the design can be seen on the reverse or inside of the pieces. Having outlined the pattern on the surface, the chaser cuts and at the same time slightly depresses the surface. A light hammer can be used in this process also. 1972, Richard Came, Silver, page 7
2. A tool used for cleaning out screw threads, either as an integral part of a tap or die to remove waste material produced by the cutting tool, or as a separate tool to repair damaged threads.
   In Fig. i is shown one of the chasers in the position which it occupies in cutting a thread. 1894, Machinery (author(s) unknown), page 141
   Many screw threads are also finished completely with chasers of this type, although they are not adapted for extremely accurate work unless the teeth are ground after hardening, because the pitch of the chaser teeth is affected more or less by... 1918, Franklin Day Jones, Thread-cutting Methods: A Treatise on the Operation and Use of Various Tools and Machines for forming screw threads..., page 32
   The category of thread cutting tools includes both the single-point and multiple-point [chaser type] lathe cutters. 1994, Francis T. Farago, Mark A. Curtis, Handbook of Dimensional Measurement, page 467
3. (nautical) A chase gun.
   bow chaser; stern chaser